...DURING THE STREAK:The Black Bears enter today riding an eight-game win streak; their longest streak of the season and the 16th longest active streak in the NCAA. During the streak, Maine has held five of its eight opponents under 50 points and are allowing just 46.5 points per game over the stretch. The Black Bears limited UMBC to just 36 points as part of the win streak, the lowest point total scored against the Black Bears since 2005 (Rider - 35 points). Defensively, Maine has forced 134 combined turnovers (16.8). Maine has got off to hot starts during the winning streak, outscoring oppoents 132-70 in the first quarter over the last eight outings. The Black Bears are averaging 8.6 three-point field goals per game during the run.

STEALING THE SHOW:Millan, who has tallied four or more steals in four of her last five games, has featured three or more takeaways in 16 games this season. Millan has at least one steal in each of her last 31 outings and currently ranks 12th in the nation with 76 steals and 15th nationally with 3.0 per game.

LEADING THE LEAGUE IN DEFENSE - 54.9 PPG:Maine, which is allowing just 51.0 points per game in America East action, continues to climb up the national scoring defense charts. The Black Bears, who lead the America East in scoring defense, currently check in 10th nationally, out of 349 teams, as they are allowing just 54.9 points per game. Maine has held 17 opponents to 60 points or fewer this season.

Stony Brook, N.Y. -- The University of Maine women's basketball team had its win streak snapped at eight straight after suffering a 76-68 loss at Stony Brook on Sunday afternoon. The loss slips Maine back to 17-9 overall and 10-3 in America East action while Stony Brook improves to 15-11 and 7-6 in league play.

Blanca Millan led the Black Bears, scoring 15 of her team-high 21 points in the second half. Millan, who has now posted double-digits in 25 consecutive games, finished 8-of-17 from the floor, including a 4-for-7 showing from three-point range. The 21 point effort marked the 10th time this season in which she's bested the 20 point plateau. Dor Saar chipped in a career-best 14 points to go along with four assists and a career-high four steals while Tanesha Sutton added 13 points and six boards.

Stony Brook featured a pair of 20-point scorers in Shania Johnson (23) and Cheyenne Clark (22). The Seawolves shot an impressive 29-for-55 (52.7) from the floor, including 10-of-14 in the third quarter.

The Black Bears were outscored 37-20 in the paint while their 17 turnovers turned into a 19-7 advantage in favor of the Seawolves in points off turnovers. Maine was also dealt its first conference loss when leading the rebounding effort after outrebounding Stony Brook, 31-26.

Maine found itself down by double-digits early after Stony Brook completed a 6-0 run to take a 17-7 lead, 6:07 into the first quarter.

Saar hit the first of her two three-point shots late in the first which sent Maine on a 6-0 of its own, rallying back to within four. Trailing by six, the Black Bears opened the second quarter with a 5-0 run. Saar found Kirsten Johnson inside for a bucket before Millan's triple brought the Black Bears to within one.

Stony Brook answered with a 12-0 run, holding Maine scoreless over six minutes, to extend its lead out to 31-18 with 2:35 remaining in the half.

Maine closed out the half on an 8-2 run, cutting the lead down to seven at the break on Saar's late three.

Leading by nine early in the third, Stony Brook continued to build on its lead, this time putting together a 15-5 sprint which saw it take its largest lead of the contest. During the sprint, the Seawolves hit a trio of triples before eventually taking a 54-35 lead with 3:21 left in th quarter.

However, there proved to be no quit in the Black Bears who continued to rally. Four free throws from Sutton in the fourth cut the lead to 11. Stony Brook answered, running the lead back to 15 but again Maine would answer.

Eight-straight points from Millan, including a pair of three-point shots, brought Maine back within seven. However it would be as close as the Black Bears could get as they would drop the road contest by a final of 76-68.

Seems simple to figure out this one. Stony Brook spread Maine's defense the full width of the forecourt and neutralized a lot of Maine's help defense. It opened up the middle for those drives across the lane and banked-in layups by Clark (No. 2), and it set up several three-pointers from the corner, especially the right corner. Maine's help defense didn't (or couldn't) move fast enough when the kids were spread out like that. Good spacing by Stony Brook. The only other AE team that I can imagine being athletic enough to do that is Albany.

Haven't seen a shot chart, but I'll bet Stony Brook didn't score nearly so well above the free-throw circle. Seemed like the help defense was moving OK up and down the court but not laterally.

Stony Brook shot 52 percent. In conference opener, Stony Brook shot 34 percent. Hard to beat a hot hand, and Stony Brook's spread offense opened it up for the shooters. Without going back to all the box scores, I'll bet that this is the only conference game so far in which the same players stood out on the opposing team. Both games, Johnson and Clark were the leading scorers for SBU.

Maine shot 42 percent, which will win most of its games. The 68 points Maine scored would win or tie (Albany) in all of its other conference games, so over all offense wasn't the problem. Fanny was not effective offensively until she stepped out for longer shots. Tanesha only played 21 minutes, and she needs to be on the floor as much as possible. I believe three of her four fouls were called by the same official, who also missed the travel on SBU that preceded a Stony Brook three that stopped a Maine rally. T still lowers her head and shoulder going in on a drive, and that tells an official "player control," even when, as yesterday, one was a flop and one was a player moving laterally into T's path as T drove, which I don't believe is "normal guarding position." Maine also missed an unusual number of layups. Stony Brook was swarming the middle.

Best America East setup in years for the finish. Albany and Maine may be headed for a showdown on Feb. 25 at the CIC, but Albany will have to win at Bingo and Maine will have to win at Vermont. Bingo has an easy path to a 1-2-3 finish with Vermont and Lowell at home before Albany at home. Albany will have two tough final games on the road with Bingo and Maine. The Black Bears need to avoid letting down at Vermont next week after the bye date on Saturday. Both Lowell and Vermont loom as spoilers for Maine and Bingo. No one else can win because the top three teams have two games remaining among them, so there are at least two Ws awaiting Maine (Lowell, @UVM, Albany), Albany (UMBC, @ Bingo, @ Maine) and Bingo (UVM, Lowell, Albany, @ Hartford).Hang on to your hats.

Bob Neal New Sharon

Last edited by turkeyman on Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:45 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Seems like there are match-up problems for Maine looming as well. The #1 seed most likely gets UMBC while a #2 seed gets Vermont, Stony Brook, Hartford or UNH. It's hard to beat a team 3 times in one season....but I think that Maine matches up best with UNH.

I actually agree... it sounds strange, but out of Vermont, Stonybrook, Hartford, UNH, I think I'd most rather see UNH.

I caught the first half of the UMBC / UNH game yesterday, and I did not come away impressed by either team (at least during the parts that I saw). UNH squeaked by with the win, but it was definitely not domination by any means. Strangely enough, UNH didn't even start Pogue (last year's Player of the Year)... not sure if the coach was trying to send a message? Or if something else was up? Pogue came off the bench and led the team in scoring, so I don't think she was sick or injured or anything. Something about UNH just seems off this year chemistry-wise. I was reading an article where the UNH coach was basically saying that their seniors are "all taking turns about when they want to show up, don’t want to show up" - and that does seem to be the case. Pogue isn't quite the consistent force in the conference that she was last year.

Having said this, UNH definitely still has the potential to be good and even to make a tournament run, so I'm not writing them off completely. But their performance this year has definitely been disappointing (if you're a UNH fan, that is ).

mainejeff wrote:Seems like there are match-up problems for Maine looming as well. The #1 seed most likely gets UMBC while a #2 seed gets Vermont, Stony Brook, Hartford or UNH. It's hard to beat a team 3 times in one season....but I think that Maine matches up best with UNH.

My apologies for being repetitive, but just wanted to move my post about yesterday's game over to the women's-specific thread (see below). Bob, thank you as usual for your insight. It looked like you had a front row seat at Sunday's, so I was curious what someone from your vantage point thought about the player control fouls called against Sutton. Glad I was not the only one who thought that, at the very least, the player control foul called against Tanesha in the fourth quarter was a blatant flop.

Lowell at home and in particular, Vermont on the road, have the potential to be trap games as it might be tempting for the Black Bears to look ahead to the season finale against Albany. As Coach Player has tweeted all season long, Maine just needs to employ a "one game at a time" mentality, particularly given how competitive this conference is top to bottom.

Despite the loss, the team (or at least one of its leaders) seems to have the right mentality per this encouraging tweet from Blanca Millan.

"You have no choices about how you lose, but you do have a choice about how you come back and prepare to win again." Here we come...Wednesday Umass. We’ll show how we do it."

A few takeaways I had from the women's game:

1. Shania (Shorty) Johnson is the real deal. She finished with 23 points on 9-15 shooting, including 5-11 from 3-point range, and 9 assists. Her range from behind the arc, outstanding ball handling, and ability to penetrate and dish to Stony Brook's post players proved to be a deadly combination for the Black Bears. Bcbc, I recall a post a few weeks ago where you commented that Dor Saar, at 5'4", is too short to be a Division I point guard. Given that Shorty Johnson, who stands at 5'1", averages 15.7 PPG (including 35% from 3-point range), 5.4 APG, and 4.0 RPG, I think you might need to reassess your height requirement for a successful D-1 point guard.

2. Maine's defense, particularly its interior defense and protection against dribble penetration, just did not show up today. I mean, Maine shot 10-21 (47.6%) from the three, scored 68 points, and still came up short. And granted, Maine did commit 17 turnovers, but the offense really wasn't the issue today. The Black Bears gave up 76 points, the most it has given up since its loss in December against national runner-up Mississippi State. You might expect Shorty Johnson to get her usual 15-20 points, but Cheyenne Clark's career high 22 points were just a killer for the Black Bears. Many of her points seemed to be on dribble drives for layups that went barely contested. Maine's offense seemed to finally click in the fourth quarter, but it was simply trading baskets with the Seawolves and could not get defensive stops when necessary. Side note: Seawolves is coming up in the post as a misspelling, which prompts the question and frequent fan chant: What's a seawolf?!

3. I have said it before, and I will say it again - Maine needs Tanesha Sutton to 1) avoid foul trouble and 2) to play at least 30 minutes per game. Her presence in the post lends credibility to Maine's interior offense and opens up the three-point shot for Maine's guards. Her ability to rebound and defensive effort are second to none. From my vantage point on the couch today, she got absolutely hosed on the two player control fouls called against her (one in the first quarter and one, her fourth foul, in the fourth quarter). The second player control foul seemed like nothing more than a flop and even got Coach Vachon steamed at the official, something we have rarely seen all season. The block/charge call is college basketball's version of the catch/no-catch rule in the NFL -the rule is inconsistently applied, and Tanesha, unfortunately, experienced that firsthand today. These were critical calls that changed the complexion of the game.

4. It was nice to see Dor Saar make some significant contributions today - 14 points, 4 assists, 4 steals, and played the full 40 minutes. I am guessing that opposing teams focus their efforts on Millan, Brosseau, and Sutton; so any substantive offensive contributions she can provide during the tournament could be the difference between an early exit for the Black Bears and hoisting the America East trophy on March 9. We also will need her ball handling if/when it comes time to face the full court pressure of Hartford and the extended zone of Albany.

5. This conference is wide open. I believe there are four tiers within this conference: 1) Maine and Albany; 2) Binghamton slightly behind them; 3) a logjam of teams that includes Hartford, UNH, Stony Brook, and Vermont; and 4) UMBC and Lowell. That having been said, I have not seen this level of parity in the conference in years. While I realistically can only envision 5 or so teams being able to rattle off three straight wins in the tournament in March, I would be shocked if there not some significant upsets along the way in Portland.

6. The #1 seed is crucial to success in the tournament, and by that I mean guaranteeing a home game in the conference championship game (should the #1 seed get that far). I actually cannot remember the last time a women's team has won the conference championship on the road. Hopefully, Maine takes care of business on Wednesday at home against Lowell and on the road against Vermont (that one scares me a bit) to set up a game on February 25 against Albany to determine the conference regular season champion (and the #1 seed).